Already known are installations according to which the functional linkup allows two specific elements of the network to share, temporarily or permanently, a link of communication. This link allows, for example, a first element, to obey the instructions sent by a second element. The link here being called “temporary” when the link can be re-examined during an intentional reconfiguration of the network requiring an intervention by a person skilled in the art or by a knowledgeable user.
There are several manners, known to those skilled in the art, of sharing such a link.
For wired versions, developed through proprietary networks, and then shared, a configuration phase allows the installer to make the desired pairings and above all groupings. American patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,037 describes such a mode of defining group addresses in the lighting field. In the case of shared networks, of the Echelon (registered trademark) type, more intuitive methods of linkup are proposed. Such methods have been divulged notably by American patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,690 and European patents EP 0 838 740 and EP 0 574 636.
Through American patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,786 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,834 and through European patent EP 0 629 934, methods are known by which, to simplify the linkup, the physical identity of each network component usually gives way to a logical identity, for example, a serial number incremented each time a component is inserted into the local area network (LAN).
Concerning the linkup of systems communicating by radio waves, an additional difficulty arises because there is no wired link making it possible to distinguish clearly between what belongs to the network and what belongs to the outside, and this demands an increase in the level of security.
In the most simple cases as divulged by patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,296 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,118, a learning procedure allows the receiver of an element to place in memory an identification code contained in the transmitter of the other element, or vice versa.
Also described in the prior art are cloning methods, used to reproduce from one transmitter to the other a single code or a plurality of identification codes already known to one or more receivers. This reproduction may take place directly between said transmitters by means of a temporary wired link as in European patent EP 0 533 623 and American patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,829, or again directly between said transmitters by radio waves, one of the transmitters being in fact bidirectional as divulged in document U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,992.
The identification code may consist of a physical address or a logical address and may be encrypted during the learning transmission. The known methods of “rolling code” or of “code hopping” can be used to avoid directly transmitting the image of the identification code. In the best protected links, the identification code is itself totally variable and is simply a “seed” used by an algorithm of the receiver that allows the latter to predict the next value or values of the identification code. Only the seed is then transmitted during the learning procedure, as described in patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,701.
In the specifications of the Bluetooth (registered trademark) type network, the establishment of a link is achieved by the memorization of a common key, created and exchanged during a pairing procedure between two elements. As in the case of linkups of wired networks of the Echelon (registered trademark) type, the installer presses a specific button to designate each element intended to be tied up.
Further removed from networks, but sharing the authentication problem, the field of electronic locks has given rise to implementations in which the learning of a new control element (user-key) by an actuator element (lock) is performed under the supervision of a third element (master-key). This third element is not itself authenticated during a learning procedure but by a code pre-registered in the actuator element during its manufacture as described by the international patent application published under number WO 80/02711.
Also found, notably in French patent 2 761 183, in the field of remote door controls, is a form of authentication, during a functional linkup, performed by a transmitter which itself has been previously registered during a learning procedure. But this patent, filed by the applicant, does not provide for this step to be used to communicate, in bidirectional manner, the information necessary for the progressive implementation of a network.
Also known from patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,888 is a method of implementing a network comprising identical individual cells communicating with one another in bidirectional manner. Each cell receives an identifier during its manufacture. A cell grouping device is used to access the identifier specific to each cell and to group the cells by assigning a group identifier to them. When the network has been installed, the cells can group together themselves. This grouping is based on the sharing, between the cells, of a group identifier. The sending of identifiers is used to determine which cells are transmitters, which cells are receivers and which cells are transmission relays.
From patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,572, a device for configuring a communication network is known. This device comprises means allowing it to connect itself temporarily to the elements constituting the communication network in order to transfer information for use in constituting the latter.
All the prior art is therefore dedicated:
either to devices intended to function in univocal manner (several transmitters, one receiver) even in the case of possible bidirectional links (then simply intended for acknowledgement transmission by the receiver to the transmitters),
or to devices communicating in a network and placed on a level of equality, without hierarchical structuring of said network,
or to devices communicating in a network, in structured manner, after at least one phase of configuration in which the installer (or the competent user) has designated all the links and groups.
The prior art therefore does not resolve the problem of cohabitation in a home automation network of both unidirectional and bidirectional devices.
The prior art does not allow the setting up of a network installation according to modalities that are strictly identical (for the installer) to those used in the case of the univocal devices to which he is accustomed.
The prior art describes, in the patent of the applicant published under number 2 761 183, a type of functional linkup of two elements, carried out under the supervision of a third element, itself previously authenticated with one of the elements during a learning operation, but without these elements being bidirectional and furthermore without this linkup causing the transfer by a first bidirectional element to a second bidirectional element of at least one information structuring the network.
The prior art does not provide for:                the information hierarchically structuring the network to be a group name,        the information hierarchically structuring the network to be the identity of the links already established with the first bidirectional element.        